RP karters seek six Asian plums

The Pagcor Sports-RP Karting Team embarks on a big mission of bagging six titles and the overall championship for the Philippines as the 2008 Asian Karting Open Championship Series stages its championship round today at the Kartodromo De Coloane Circuit in Macau.

Young talented karter Christian Gaddi of Jet Racing and Juha Turalba of Ready2Race are already assured of the overall Asian Cadet and ROK Senior plums as the country will be pinning its hopes on Stefano Marcelo of Maranello-San Miguel Corporation-Marcelo Racing, Joey Orduna of Ready2Race, AUTS skipper Indy Villalon and Jet Racing’s RG Romero to deliver the other four crowns with the big support of Pagcor Sports and RP motorsports godfather Johnny Tan.

Marcelo is eyeing his second straight Asian Karting diadem as he guns for the overall championship in the Formula 125 Open Senior while Orduna is a cinch to capture the overall ROK Junior title.

Villalon seeks to claim the Yamaha Cup Senior while Romero is keen on clinching the Yamaha Cup Junior crown up against an All-Filipino field that includes Jet Racing teammate Milo Rivera, AUTS Racing’s John Anthony Castelar and Ready2Race ace Brian del Val.

Eleven countries have confirmed their participation in this event. Aside from host Macau and Philippines, the others are China, Japan, Hongkong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Czech Republic, Switzerland and powerhouse Thailand.

The 16-year-old Marcelo, who’ll also compete in the KF1 Championship, is the overall leader with 92 points, holding a precarious two-point advantage over Thailand’s Tin Sritrai.

An unfortunate incident yesterday puts pressure on Marcelo to work doubly hard, as he hopes his new engine to be released today from the Customs bureau will key his title clincher.

Sritrai topped the qualifying time trials with 49.034 up against Marcelo’s 49.128. Stefano was running a strong second in the first qualifying heat but dropped to third as his old engine lost power and later ended with a DNF when his engine finally seized.

A quick engine repair, changing the old piston and ring with new ones sent Marcelo running strong in the second qualifying heat where he controlled the tempo until the last two laps when his engine again seized and got another DNF.

He’ll be pushing his limits in the third qualifying heat to earn the No. 1 grid that will give him a big advantage in the pre-final race.

Orduna is way ahead with 102 points in the ROK Junior division but will be facing a tough field that includes teammate Roby Benito and equally talented foreign rivals Ling Gong of China, Martin Doubeck of Czech Republic and Raphaek Aguiar of Switzerland.

He will be starting third in the pre-final heat after winding up third overall behind Aguiar and Doubeck in the qualifying heats where Orduna finished better than KF3 drivers and Formula 125 Open Junior drivers in the tough 21-man combined race.

The pre-final and the final heats are set Sunday.

For full results and other inquiries, interested parties may contact Carmona Circuit Philippines c/o Rose Feria at 817-2241.